Various material removing devices are known in the prior art. Such material removing devices might generally include a wheeled frame having a handle for manual control and guidance, a power source such as an internal combustion engine mounted to the frame and a cutting reel assembly driven by the power source which is equipped with radially mounted plates or blades for cutting and removing material. Such material removing devices are useful for such tasks as removing shingles from a roof substrate surface. A primary consideration in the configuration and operation of such material removing devices is to quickly strip unwanted material, such as old weathered shingles, while not damaging the underlying substrate surface. Material removing devices are typically configured so that the vertical position of the cutting reel can be carefully adjusted in relation to secondary supporting elements such as wheels or skids which support the frame of the device. One difficulty in this approach is that secondary supporting elements may ride either upon stripped or unstripped surfaces thus varying the vertical position of the cutting reel. Accordingly, what is needed is a material removing device which, without the aid of secondary supporting elements, is inherently configured to remove overlaid material from a substrate while not penetrating and damaging underlying substrate material.